Thousands of Teachers Gain Eligibility Status for Social Security
Educators in 15 states shouldn鈥檛 expect a windfall, but they might find more money in their pockets thanks to a law recently signed by President Joe Biden.
The Social Security Fairness Act effectively boosts retirement benefits for hundreds of thousands of current and former K-12 educators.
It simplifies one of the many complications of America鈥檚 patchwork system of retirement benefits.
Retired public school educators in the 15 states where school districts don鈥檛 participate in Social Security will now receive full federal retirement benefits for any income they earned from jobs for which they paid into the Social Security system. In other words, they can now collect federal retirement benefits if they spent portions of their career in the private sector or as educators in other states. Educators in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas are affected.
The newly passed law erases two long-standing components of federal retirement policy that reduced Social Security benefits for educators, firefighters, and other public-sector workers in states that prohibit those workers from participating in Social Security鈥攅ven the income they earned from jobs where their employer deducted Social Security taxes from their paychecks.
And some people may now be eligible to receive a Social Security spousal benefit because they didn鈥檛 earn enough to get one of their own, or they receive the benefits earned by a deceased relative, known as 鈥渁 survivor鈥檚 benefit.鈥�
If educators never worked in other jobs either in or outside those states, they won鈥檛 be eligible to receive the federal benefits.
The law says benefits are retroactive to January 2024, though it doesn鈥檛 say whether workers will have to take action to claim those retroactive increases.
The federal government will spend $196 billion more on Social Security benefits over the next decade as a result of the new law, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in September.
The Social Security Trust fund already reported last year that by 2035, it is set to only have enough money to pay for 75 percent of its committed benefits. Without further action from lawmakers, that crisis point may happen a little earlier now.
Biden Administration Scraps Proposal to Address Medicaid Payments for Kids鈥� Medical Services
School districts waiting at length for a shift in the rules for billing Medicaid will now have to wait longer鈥攊f they see it at all.
The U.S. Department of Education withdrew a proposal that sought to streamline how schools seek payment from Medicaid for the mental health and medical services they provide to students, partially with the goal of giving schools new resources to tackle students鈥� worsening mental health.
The department withdrew the proposed regulation late last month, along with two others that were intended to expand protections for transgender student-athletes and cancel student loans for more than 38 million Americans. Scrapping unfinished proposals prevents President-elect Donald Trump from being able to rewrite them to better support his priorities and finalize his version more quickly. Now, if Trump wants to pursue policies on the same issues, he will have to start from scratch in the regulatory process, which can take months or years to complete.
The department鈥檚 pivot is a blow to school administrators, who have long criticized the lengthy bureaucratic process that makes it more difficult to use available funds to help students with mental health and medical needs and receive services to address them at school.
鈥淭his is an extremely disappointing development,鈥� said Sasha Pudelski, the advocacy director for AASA, the School Superintendents Association. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to continue to have negative financial and administrative impacts for school districts across the country.鈥�
But parents鈥� rights groups and disability rights organizations were concerned about the implications of such a change. The proposed change, first announced in 2023, ran into a large amount of opposition during the public comment period, according to the department鈥檚 withdrawal notice.
Under the proposal, schools would have had to get written parental consent before billing Medicaid. Billing the programs doesn鈥檛 involve any cost to parents.
School officials have said that requesting that consent is burdensome on staff and confusing for parents.
Hall Passes Go Digital to Curtail Out-of-Class Time and Complement 69传媒鈥� Cellphone Restrictions
Based on a series of feedback sessions, the Lincoln, Neb., school system saw two big problems to confront: the need for updated guidelines on students鈥� cellphone use and a way to address students鈥� out-of-class time.
The district launched digital hall passes鈥攁nd here鈥檚 the twist鈥攚ithout the use of cellphones. Lincoln鈥檚 high schools now allow students to request a pass on their laptops, verbally seek their teacher鈥檚 permission, and then approve the passes themselves on the laptop.
The passes are valid for a predetermined amount of time鈥攕even minutes for a restroom break, two minutes to refill a water bottle, and so on鈥攁nd students have to be back in the classroom when time runs out.
There are no physical passes. Instead, security staff, teachers, and administrators have access to the dashboard that shows which students have active hall passes and where they鈥檙e allowed to go.
The system also allows administrators to use the dashboard to limit how many students have active passes to specific rooms or areas of the school at once. So, if a restroom only has three stalls, administrators can make it so only three hall passes can be active for that particular restroom at the same time.
What鈥檚 more, administrators can restrict specific students鈥攕ay, those who frequently meet up during class time or are known for having run-ins鈥攆rom receiving passes to the same places at the same time, even if they are in different classes.
鈥淚f I鈥檓 a student, not only can I not have my cellphone in class, but then when I leave class, then I also haven鈥檛 set up a time to meet somebody outside of class, because I haven鈥檛 had a way to communicate with them,鈥� said Jessie Fries, the district鈥檚 director of secondary education.
Digital hall passes also offer an extra layer of security for students in an emergency, said Nelle Biggs, the principal of Summit Middle School in Frisco, Colo., which also restricts cellphones during the day. Being able to keep track of students via the passes has helped assuage some parents鈥� concerns about not being able to contact their children on their cellphones, said Erin Dillon, the school鈥檚 assistant principal.
Loss of Net Neutrality Could Hamper 69传媒
Navigating the internet may take longer in the future for the have-nots, schools included. That鈥檚 one likely outcome of a federal appeals court ruling that strikes down the Federal Communications Commission鈥檚 hard-fought and long-debated open internet rules.
The FCC had sought to reinstate a sweeping policy established under President Barack Obama that was designed to treat internet service as an essential public service, similar to a water or power utility.
Under the so-called net neutrality rules, internet service providers would have been subjected to greater regulation. A Republican-led commission repealed the rules in 2017 during President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 first term.
Supporters of net neutrality say it is essential to guaranteeing that the internet has a free and open flow of web-based material. Without it, school and ed-tech organizations fear that internet service providers could throttle or slow down content to schools, while fast-tracking delivery of content by commercial interests that can afford to pay more. Additionally, some startup ed-tech providers have said they rely on a level playing field for delivering online content to schools, a status that could be undermined if big, moneyed providers receive special treatment.
Last year, the FCC鈥攖hen back under Democratic control鈥攙oted to formalize a national standard for internet service to prevent the blocking or slowing of information delivered over broadband internet lines. The core principle of open internet meant that internet service providers couldn鈥檛 discriminate among content suppliers.
But this month, the appellate court ruled that the five-member commission lacked the authority to reclassify broadband internet as a telecommunications service.
FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel called on Congress 鈥渢o put open internet principles in federal law.鈥�
Human Guides to Help AI 鈥楾eachers鈥� at Ariz. Charter
Goodbye teachers. Hello guides. A newly approved online charter school in Arizona will take that approach when it starts enrolling students whose main 鈥渢eacher鈥� will be artificial intelligence.
Unbound Academy aims to enroll about 200 students in its first year and serve students in grades 4-8 initially. It is affiliated with private schools in Texas and Florida, but this will be the founders鈥� first foray into public schools.
The school will prioritize AI in its content delivery model, with students working at their own pace through math, reading, and science for the first two hours of their day.
AI, the founders say, will adapt to address what students are excelling in鈥攔atcheting up the instruction to match the student鈥檚 knowledge and skills to keep things challenging鈥攚hile tempering other lessons if a student isn鈥檛 grasping material.
Meanwhile, teachers鈥攌nown as 鈥済uides鈥濃�攚ill monitor the students鈥� progress. Mostly, the guides will serve as motivators and emotional support, said co-founder MacKenzie Price.
鈥淵ou cannot get rid of the human in the classroom,鈥� Price said. 鈥淏ut what we can do is provide a better model. Instead of a teacher having to try to meet 20-plus different students who are all at totally varied levels of understanding where they鈥檙e at academically 鈥� we鈥檙e allowing them to really do what they鈥檙e able to do really well: connecting with students.鈥�
The guides will be charged with connecting with students throughout the day, hold one-on-one meetings with students each week, monitor their progress, help them if they have challenges with the material, and contact families if students aren鈥檛 doing coursework.
Guides will also lead 鈥渓ife skills鈥� workshops in the afternoon, where students learn 鈥減ractical, real-world experiences,鈥� such as financial literacy, public speaking, and goal setting.
Price said teachers will be certified according to Arizona鈥檚 requirements, though at the private brick-and-mortar schools employing the same model in Texas, previous teaching experience is not required.
